#1 feels a bit heavy weighted to the left for me, and the foreground rock seems a bit cramped against the edge of the image, but I really like the detail in the water and rock face. Also, the wide shot really makes the waterfall look much more prominent than it likely is, but since the waterfall is the key interest in the image, that's probably a good thing. For me, this is the more interesting of the two images.

#2 the light rays feel a bit synthetic to me, and while it is again more heavily weighted to the left, it feels less off balance than #1 for me. I really like the work to try and create some sort of epic feel to the image, but it seems misplaced for such a small waterfall. The smallness of the waterfall is made to look even smaller because the model is so large in the frame by comparison, so for me it comes off as dressing the location up as something it's not, which pulls me out of the image/story a bit.

I personally like #2 because i am tired of seeing the "silky smooth" water. I think Patrick shot #2 because i know he likes the Alien Skin plugins and I suspect he used it to put in the flare from the top right.

1 – The rocks in the water give some depth to the picture, but they are too big for my taste and not that interesting. The flow of the waterfall is nice, but the light is boring. My guess would be Lee because I think the second one is a self-portrait.

2 – Looks like a self-portrait without focus. The three elements (person, waterfall and sunrays) don’t come together enough. Slower shutter speed could have improved the flow of the water.

Probably like the second one better because the light is way more interesting even though it looks like the sunrays were added (or enhanced) in post.

#2 was my favorite. For me, adding the figure gave it drama. There something about the tension in the body as this person looks up towards the sun that is interesting. He is not looking at the beauty of the waterfall but upward instead. Why? Who is he and how did he get there?

Picture 1:
+ The smooth water looks nice, so the long exposure and maybe the Polarizer are well put together.
+ Nice light on the waterfall's rock
+ Good composition (Nice balance of foreground + "middle ground" + background)
- Halo / Chromatic Aberration & Fringing in the background branches against the sky (purple/green)
- The whole greenery looks HDR-ish, (isn't that what Lee always says himself?), very dull, neon in some parts.
--> Overall post production could be way better.

Picture 2:
• The composition is okay, not really anything special, as a lot of the scenery is covered by the branch and the guy.
- Fake light beams --> Over-processed
- The whole light situation does not match. The beams are coming from the front but still the guy is side-lit from the right and has even some light on the left side. There's a possiblity that he was not even in the picture and has been composited into it after. But I rather think it's just the light beams that have been added afterwards. The waterfall is also lit from the top and not from where the light is suggested to be (light beams) Basically the whole picture is lit from straight above and the light beams have been added. That does not look right at all.
• Don't know what to say about it "positively"

My conclusion: Picture 1 is better than picture 2.
Thinking back of the video where Lee composited a car into a scenery, picture 2 would be on the same level of compositing (which isn't believable - neither was the car scenery). On the other hand, When Lee had the shootout with Mike Kelley, he did not go THAT crazy. So it's really hard to tell who took which picture. I guess, Lee 1, Patrick 2. But well, it's just 50-50. Anyway, both should work on their post-production skills, which they always critique themselves to be sloppy in Critique the community. If the HDR-ish look is fixed in picture, I clearly give the picture 3*.

I think they're both really good shots, but better for different contexts. I think 2 has more of a story to it. So for someone's personal branding, if they travel the world or wrote a book, this would be fantastic marketing materials with it. But 1, without context is just a good photo for print. Something you'd see in a motivational poster or something. I ended up voting 1, but I do like both.

Also Lee took the second photo because he complains about the person in the frame in every critique.